A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie.

A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak—it’s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie.

Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation. She starts talking to Maggie (the tumor), getting acquainted with her body’s new inhabitant. She overgenerously creates a “Guide to My Husband: A User’s Manual” for Maggie (the other woman), hoping to ease the process of discovering her ex-husband’s whims and quirks. She turns her children’s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture—and to maybe save herself in the process.

If you’re the sort of person who reads fiction with a pen in hand, ready to mark the best witticisms and turns of phrase, then Maggie might just be your favorite read of the year. This short literary gem is so quotable, I found myself wanting to underline not just a few sentences, but the entire book.

The unnamed narrator of Maggie is diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her husband announces he’s leaving her for the “other woman.” In less skillful hands, these events could spawn a maudlin account of self-pity or a pseudo-inspirational tale of overcoming hardship, but Katie Yee transforms them into a story that is as wryly hilarious as it is heartfelt. Intertwined with Chinese folktales, lists of her ex-husband’s best and worst qualities, and sharp-witted anecdotes, the narrator’s voice kept me surprised and engaged with every new paragraph.

This book strikes the perfect balance between laughter and tears in a tragic situation. It’s poignant, funny, dark, and above all deeply real—at the risk of sounding a bit delusional, I’ll admit that the narrator felt as alive to me as anyone else I know! Grab your pen and get to underlining—Maggie is a literary masterpiece you’ll want to keep on your shelf for years to come.